GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) – As the cooler and shorter days of fall slowly settle in, you may be wondering: what can we expect this winter.

“It looks like the forecast is for a warmer and drier winter,” said Scott Curtis, an atmospheric science professor at ECU, after looking at NOAA’s seasonal outlook. “This is just looking at the chance that you’re going to get warm days and dry days and so you’re going to get a greater frequency of these kind of warm days and dry days than you would normally. There’s often times where we have a warm season you can still have a very severe cold outbreak.”

The chance of that happening will be a little lower this winter.

Overall, we’re expecting a warm and dry winter in the East. One of the biggest factors: something that was expected to be a big player last winter.

“Most of that (is) stemming from the La Niña that’s being forecast,” explained Curtis. “With La Niña, a lot of the storm systems are pushed northward. There’s a stronger polar jet and a weaker subtropical jet in the wintertime so a lot of the storm systems rather than coming across the Deep South will take a turn to the north.”

Less storms will mean fewer clouds and rain and more sunshine. You may want to ask Santa for a new pair of shades instead of a new pair of gloves this Christmas.

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